Well I'm gettin the wood cut right on time this year! Given this is my only source of heat this is serious business. Couple of new things I'm trying this year. I'm cuttin and splittin and leaving it in a big pile instead of stacking it right away. What always happens is that as it drys my stacked pile starts to lean then falls so this way I'll leave it to stack in the fall when its bone dry. Also any extra that I cut I'll leave in rounds and spit it when its cooler. See how smart I'm a gittin?

Anyone else only heat by wood? How about your technique? Do you also get those "warm fuzzies" when its all done and you know you'll be dry and cozzy for another year?......kirk

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2002

Answers

Hi, Kirk, I heated exclusively with wood for 20 years. Now I'm spoiled by my geothermal heat pump; I let it bring the house up to 70 just before I wake up, then build a fire if I'm going to be home. Lots of mornings, though, the heat pump doesn't even need to come on, as the house is so well insulated.

I have always tried to keep a couple of years ahead on my wood supply; this gives the wood a long time to dry, and also gives me a warm fuzzy feeling of security, in case I can't cut wood for some reason later.

I like to cut the wood and let it lie on the ground, in the hot summer oregon sun for the summer, AFTER splitting it. This seems to expose it to more air and heat, drying it rapidly. If it's not split, it stays greener for much longer-at least the madrone and manzanita I rely on behaves that way.

I have discovered, unfortunately, that some wood has gotten invaded by bugs or mold after a year or two, so stocking up beyond that is not necessarily a good idea around here.

For myself, I love to cut wood in the winter, when I like the warming excercise. I hate cutting in the summer! I'm very warm natured. I'd rather cut in the rain or snow than in the heat. (Don't start any wildfires that way, either!)

Lotta folks around here wait until they need their first fall fire before cutting wood, so they end up buying "seasoned" wood for half again the cost of green wood. The seasoned wood isn't necessarily all that seasoned, either.

Stay warm!

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2002

Hi Kirk,

We haven't had too much cutting, stacking, and drying this year (other than busting up some pallets). We had stacked an additional couple of cords of firewood at my mom's prior to y2K. She decided she probably wouldn't use that much now (she has a nice central heated gas furnace). So our latest gatherin' has been throwing seasoned wood into the pickup and hauling it back to our place to stack. If she needs more, I guess we'll have to haul it back...

JOJ, I agree: cutting wood in the summer heat is nasty! better in the spring or fall (keeping hopefully a year's drying in mind). Mr. S. does the harvesting and cutting the wood into rounds. I split the easier stuff and stack it. Mr. S. will split the tough rounds and do the limbing, etc. I also cut the small branches to make into bundles for kindling and for the wood cookstove.

I love the whole wood cycle: Grow the trees (or better yet have the neighbors grow them!); cut the trees down; haul the logs out of the woods (hope the tractor doesn't get stuck), cut, split, dry, stack; make wonderful heat with wood; and then recycle the ashes to the garden... and in theory grow more trees, although my garden is a ways from our (or our neighbor's) woods. Satisfying real work, anyway.

We would like to have central heating some day (when I'm old), but I love wood heat for now. It's so warm and toasty. I wish it weren't so messy (dust and debris in the house), but it goes with the territory, I guess.

obtw, we have a wood shed, so our wood stacks stay pretty stable. I do make sure to engineer the stacks as best as I can (I love doing that part...it's like a design project), as I'm always concerned that one of the cats will bring down a section (and onto itself!).

Have fun!

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2002

Hey here, Kirk...we've been heating exclusively with wood for almost 26 yrs. now. We gave up on the stacking "thing" after the first couple of winters!! Seems that the wood just never stayed dry when stacked neatly. Maybe if we kept it in some kind of a wood shed it would stay dry...but now we just split and throw into a pile that can be as tall as 8 or 9 feet. The air gaps in the pile help keep the wood dry. I just keep a path shoveled through the snow to the woodpile. It's my job to keep the woodbox full while Harry does the cutting and splitting! We usually have a pretty dry cold here so that even though the top of the woodpile is covered with snow, the interior is dry!! Harry cuts the firewood (ash, maple, oak and birch) in January and February and lets it lay tree-length til July or August when he'll split it. It takes about 6 to 8 cord of wood to keep us warm throughout the winter. We prefer a cool house and sometimes...in mid January...the early morning temp in the house is 50 degrees or less!! Probably someday we'll put in some kind of a central heating system, but for now we love the warm "fuzzies" we get with wood heat AND the security knowing that no one can turn our heat off 'cause we didn't pay the heating bill!!! I hope to always have my wood cookstove!!

-- Anonymous, June 24, 2002

From what I have read, Native Americans used to 'girdle' a tree, then leave it standing for months at a time. The tree would die, and dry out while it left standing. This allows the wood to dry it without having contact with moisture near the ground. The tree was then cut down, dry and ready to burn. I do imagine you had to take care with those potential 'widow-makers' though.

Do you use mauls or axes? Or do you invest in those motorized log splitters?

I envy you people who use wood to keep warm. Where I live, keeping warm isn't the problem; keeping cool is! Anybody have any ice . . . :^).

Stay warm folks.

-- Anonymous, June 25, 2002

j., I wouldn't be able to function in your heat. The heat of summer up here near does me in. I hate getting sweaty and the fact that I'm hauling about 60 extra pounds around does not help. Since my husband works full time in the city we go for the convenience of cut and split wood delivered to our door. (we don't have a woodlot either) Before the notice of his termination we were entertaining thoughts og remodelling our kitchen to have a wood burning cookstove for our heat, cooking and hot water needs. I am so disappointed in that more than anything else. Oh well, we still have our little crappy no longer airtight that keeps this house way toasty in the winter (though not circulated very well). we leave the wood mostly for the summer because we are busy with other things and then get it stacked in the basement in the fall. Yes we do get critters and bugs but that just life with wood. We'd really like to put up a woodshed sometime and maybe we will eventually. we do feel really good when the wood is in and we light the first fire of the year. We usually snuggle in front of the stove on the floor and enjoy the flames and warmth.

-- Anonymous, June 25, 2002

j.r., Harry splits some of the bigger pieces with a maul that he welded a steel handle...he kept breaking the wooden handles!! He also built himself a splitter that stands about 3½ ft. tall out of steel beams and a small motor. It has three car tires (looks sorta like a tricycle) mounted on it so he can hook it up to his tractor and split up in the woods if he wants to. The taller splitter has helped his back alot!! He does split the kindling with a hatchet since it's all dried cedar and practically falls apart as soon as you touch it!!

I don't think we could function in your heat down there either, j.r.!! Seems that no matter how cold it gets here, I can always find something to do to keep warm :-)!!

-- Anonymous, June 25, 2002

J.R. and Marcia.....I only have a small space to warm so I only need a couple a cords. This I just split with a maul and a wedge. Gosh I break my share of handles too! Lately I've been cutting my rounds inside an old tire so when I split it I don't have to chase the pieces. Harry's a smart guy Mar! When I get the bathroom/kitchen finished and have more to warm, I may have to figure an easier way like he did. ......Kirk

-- Anonymous, June 25, 2002

Kirk...Sometimes I really wish that all we had to worry about heating was a "small space"!! We built this two-story home hoping to have family from out of state visit more often, but no such luck. We're planning on fixing up one of the spare bedrooms for our granddaughter since she's determined to have a "sleep over" here...maybe we'll fix up her daddy's old bedroom! When it comes to welding or working with any type of a motor...yup, Harry is pretty smart! BUT...give him a hammer, nails and lumber and he's totally lost :-)!!

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

Kirk, I envy people that heat with wood. We just don't have room since our decorating style is early garage sale and modern clutter! Our philosophy is that if we see the carpet, something needs to go there. Cuts down on the house cleaning! No room for a stove. But we're lucky, even though we are at the very end of the power line, we've never had the power out for more than a few hours.

JOJ, I also envy people who have geothermal heat pumps. Since we live in a double wide, it would sure cut down on the utilities. I was going to say that I wish I'd been smart enough to have one installed, regardless of the price, but then I remembered that I live on a rock shelf! I'm sure it could have been installed but the cost would probably have been prohibitive.

I heat the shop with wood but the little stove is so small that it will only take wood about 8 inches so getting wood for it, isn't much of a problem. I'm lucky, just pull dead branches out of the woods and cut them on the bandsaw.

Wildman, (Green)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

Wildman, you might talk to a geothermal heat pump rep anyway. You might be able to utilize a well for the water, with a return well to avoid depleting your aquifer. If the water quality is halfway decent, it's more practical. I'd think the Heat Pump folks would know about that, wherever you live.

JR, I grew up in Texas. In 1965 I delivered a VW bug to my sister, who was living in San Francisco. I'd been working as a carpenter all summer, and was so impressed by the breezy fifty-five degree August weather in The City, that I moved to the west coast asap.

I got tired of the cool summers eventually, and moved to an interior valley area of Oregon, where the winters are mild, the summers are fairly mild and DRY DRY DRY. Love that low humidity. I bet even Sheepish has low humidity up in Wash.?

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2002

I spent the summer of 1980 in San Diego (very near Fiesta Island, for those with enquiring minds . . . :^D), was very impressed with California summers. AWESOME weather, I loved it. It's no wonder so many people live there; if it wasn't for the population concentrations, I'd move there too.

I always enjoyed Jack Kerouac's description of California and Washington state in "The Dharma Bums"; made me want to go native and live like a Buddhist monk in the foothills / mountains over there. I've got an aunt who lived in Sunnyside, Washington for years, and now is living in Prosser; and invites my family and myself to go visit. Someday.

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2002

Humidity is usually, I dunno, maybe 50-60%. Is that low?

Mr. S. is a rabid Kerouac fan. He made a pilgrimage a while back. He and some of his old buds hiked up Desolation Peak (took a boat up Ross Lake to the trailhead) and camped on top. They took some great b&w photos of the fire lookout and Hozomeen Peak (across from Desolation). This was a couple of years ago. Anyway, I've had to live with one or another Kerouac book on the bedstand for oh, 25 years...he reads them over and over again, I guess!

I like the descriptions in Ken Kesey's book, Sometimes a Great Notion. The dripping wet coastal life of Oregon is pretty clearly presented!

Our climate is more inland and modestly high, around 500'. Because the Olympics either stop the biggest rainstorms (or channel them around either flank, creating a convergence zone on the lee side...usually headed right toward my location!), we have fairly mild weather. However, we have the Cascades at our backside, so often the clouds get hung up headed eastbound and hang over us for days.

So much for today's travel and weather report!!!

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2002